


Islands in the Heart

by raviiel



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Canon Compliant, Drabble Collection, Gen, Non-Linear Narrative, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, POV Multiple
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-10-27 07:37:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 7,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17762576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raviiel/pseuds/raviiel
Summary: The girl who collected strays and became a home to many.A collection of drabbles and oneshots surrounding Taiyou, a girl who is best friends with Kairi, Sora, and Riku, and her adventures with them.





	1. Finding Sanctuary

_You refuse to lay your head to rest wherever you go_  
_Feeling like your mind and body are always separated from your soul_  
_You insist so adamantly that you need no place to rest_  
_Sparing such little consideration for those taking respite in your chest_

 _Slow down, you know you can_  
_You just don't remember the last time you hadn't ran_  
_Slow down, you don't have to worry_  
_In time, you'll learn to temper that fury_

 _Turn that avariciousness into a place others can call haven_  
_Allow your longing to become an incentive to take strays in_  
_You're going to burn, so burn bright like the sun_  
_Be a guide, be a beacon, be the light that has won_

 _Your insides lead to a prize only the panicked seek_  
_And you became a puppet for it, so you thought yourself weak_  
_They melted you down and tried to mold you into a throne_  
_And for those actions, you paid the price; it was you who ended up alone_

 _But you're home. You're home and you are home_  
_And what they don't know is, you're never alone_  
_You take them with you, wherever you go_  
_You're home, you are home, you're their home_

 _Wherever they roam, wherever they're thrown_  
_So long as you exist, you'll unite them_  
_Wherever they roam, wherever they're thrown_  
_You'll be the reason they're never alone_

 

☼

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i decided to move this to the 1st chapter because it's a culmination of Taiyou's story throughout the entire series. i was inspired to write this by [Lizz Robinett's](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq36dja_0U4SgB3wYVtr_Zw) character lyrics of various KH characters despite the fact that Taiyou has no musical theme of her own and i have no ability to compose one
> 
> i've waited a really long time to reveal her in this kind of form, but if i don't do it now, i never will! i hope you'll support me :'^) these chapters will be out of chronological order and random picks throughout the series, but i'll always say which games they take place during at the beginning :3c
> 
> i'll try to post one every few days, so i hope you enjoyed reading, and please leave a comment!


	2. Secret Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a place only Taiyou knows, but now she has friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi! i really wanted to have self-restraint and post full actual works involving her, including fanart! but i'm rusty and my heart hasn't been in drawing for a while, so that'll just have to wait! i'd like everyone to know my baby, i've had her for such a long time and she's been one of my biggest projects, so i hope you'll show her a lot of love ☆ here is a wiki-style blurb!
> 
>  **Taiyou** (タイヨウ) lives on Destiny Islands with her best friends, Kairi, Sora, and Riku. The four of them dream of venturing outside of Destiny Islands to see what's out there, but when that dream comes true in the form of a nightmare instead, Taiyou wants nothing more than to find her friends and return to the place where her heart lies.
> 
> _This chapter takes place between Birth By sleep and Kingdom Hearts._

"You really gotta promise not to tell anyone!" Taiyou insists, arms waving wildly. Rolling his eyes, Riku pulls Sora out of range from being smacked in the face. "That's the most important-est thing, okay? If you tell someone, we can't be friends anymore!"

Sora nods vigorously, both fists clenching in determination. "We won't, we swear it!"

"Don't answer for me," Riku says, prying Sora off when he starts shaking at his shoulder, chanting, _Right, Riku? Right?_

Taiyou's cheeks round out in a pout and she slaps one palm to her brown bicep. "Don't make me beat you up!"

Riku scoffs, crossing his arms. "Yeah right, like you could ever."

 _"C'mon,_ Riku! I wanna see, I wanna see!" Sora whines, rocking his shoulder again.

Between a rock and a hard place, Riku looks from Sora's begging pout to Taiyou's irritated one. He swore, he never knew how he was friends with these two dummies. Still, he thinks glancing around the island for where Taiyou's secret hiding spot could be, he couldn't deny that he was curious about where she'd disappear when they would play hide and seek. He swore he's never found her once and he doesn't like it.

"Okay, fine," he huffs, "but only because Sora won't stop being a baby."

Sora stamps his foot. "I'm _not_ being a baby!"

Taiyou frowns at him. "Don't call him that," she says, "or I'm not gonna show ya."

Panic thrills through him, but he smothers it with another huff, arms tightening over his chest. _"Fine,_ can we go now?"

Satisfied, Taiyou grips both of their wrists and starts dragging them across the beach. Both of them stumble over their steps, having to practically skip to keep up with her hopping pace. It's not long before Riku recognizes the path they're taking. Taiyou leads them to a short ridge that hugs the biggest tree on the island, and she waits for the two of them to climb up after her before taking them into a corner far tucked in between the vastly thick trunk and the stone wall where there's nothing but foliage.

"Um…" Sora smartly lets out.

Taiyou looks over her shoulder at them and grins toothily. They watch her drop to her knees and crawl effortlessly into the big leaves.

"Wait, but the… the wall…" Sora reaches after her, worrying that she was going to bump her head.

Riku blinks, and then they hear Taiyou's voice, but it has an echo and sounds farther.

"A tunnel?" He closes in on the leaves she'd crawled into and follows after.

"R-Riku, wait!"

Riku doesn't stop crawling but instead calls back, "It's fine, Sora," and goes the rest of the way.

Gurgling at the thought of being left behind mixed with apprehension, Sora skitters to his knees and follows. The tunnel is bigger than all of them, but Sora envisions growing too big by accident and not being able to fit all the way through.

"Y-You guys!" He cries, hurrying along towards the natural light he sees.

"You're doin' great!" Taiyou cheers, and Sora sees her sandals hopping from side to side while Riku's shoes walk around behind her.

Sora's hands and knees are scuffed and aching by the time the tunnel opens up, but any complaints of his fade when his head tilts back to look at the domed roof of smooth rock piled together. Branches, stray roots, and vines from the outside trees grow through the cracks, and he can even see flowers.

"Whoa!" He exclaims, leaping forward, and when his voice echoes, he bounces. "Hello!"

Taiyou giggles, throwing her voice around too before hooking Sora's arm and swinging them around in a merry jig, black bangs flying about her face.

"Riku!" Sora pipes, turning his head to look for him.

When he gets no response, he slows down and lets Taiyou spin out of his arm hook to check what Riku was doing. Riku turns around, pointing at something behind him.

"What's that?"

Taiyou stops skipping around to see what he was talking about and then goes to stand in front of it; a rounded door taller than any of them, beveled with thick golden line that twisted and wove into a design that pointed downwards.

"Oh, it's the door," Taiyou answers, mostly unhelpful.

"Door?" Sora asks, and then goes up to it, patting around. "But there's no knob. How come there's no knob?"

Taiyou shrugs, stretching her arms over her head as she rolls onto the heels of her child's geta. "Papa says it's not meant to be open."

Riku frowns. "The chief? Not much of a secret place if an _adult_ knows about it."

Taiyou narrows her azure eyes. "Me n' papa are the only ones who know! An' he never needs to come here, so it's _mine."_

Riku rolls his eyes and crosses his arms. "Yeah, right, I bet you tons of people could find this spot."

"Well _you_ never could!"

"Could too if I tried!"

"C'mon guys, no fighting!" Sora whines, bobbing up between them with arms bent earnestly. Both of them looked at him, each other, and then away, huffing. Alarmed, Sora quickly searched for a balm between his two friends before spotting a few rocks on the ground. He scrambled to pick them up. "Hey, let's draw!" He presented the rocks to them with both palms.

"On the walls?" Taiyou asked, picking one out. "But papa said this was an important place… I'm not gonna get in trouble!"

"Whatever," Riku challenges, taking another, "you get in trouble every day! And besides, you always gonna do what your _papa_ says?"

Taiyou glares at him and then marches right up to one of the boulders to start scribbling something furiously. Sora and Riku gathered behind to watch over her shoulders, and she put her fists to her hips proudly when she was done.

"There!"

A crude drawing of a knight in armor brandishing a funny-looking sword now marred the boulder's smooth face.

"I can do one better than that," Riku snorted, and hurried to the other side.

"Me too!" Sora chanted, and before they knew it, the three of them were scrawling on the walls and turning it into more than a secret hiding spot for one—a gathering place for friends.


	3. The Shooting Star

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A girl-shaped star falls from the sky.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _This chapter takes place between Birth By Sleep and Kingdom Hearts._

_Something is coming…_

Taiyou sits up in her bed suddenly, rubbing at her eyes with balled hands before blinking. The darkness of her bedroom is cut by only a nightlight that shines dim stars on her walls thanks to a paper cutout, and her eyes slowly adjust. A yawn pops her jaw before she lays back down, thinking the jumbled words were only her imagination.

  


"Did'ja know there's gonna be a meteor rain soon!" Sora exclaims when they're being rowed in the boat by one of the adults from the mainland.

"Meteor _shower,"_ Riku corrects smartly. "And yeah, only the whole _island_ knows. There's gonna be a festival, don't 'cha know?"

Excited, Sora leans forward. "Ohmigosh, that's right! Tai, isn't your family being the leaders?"

Taiyou puffs her chest proudly. "My family is the leader _every_ year, don't ya know?"

The adult listening in on their exchange chuckles.

Sora gasps, remembering this to be true. "That's right! It's cuz… It's cuz… Um… Why, again?"

"Cuz her family are the descendants of the founders," Riku answers.

"That's a big word." Sora frowns. "Descent… Deesind… Duhsign…"

_"Descend,"_ Riku corrects.

"Tai, that must be so cool!" Sora says, ignoring his friend.

Taiyou shrugs, though her shoulders are still prideful. "Yeah, it's pretty neato. Papa says we can watch the shower from the island this year! The paopu tree's got the best seat in the whole wide world."

"Really?!"

"Sora, you're rocking the boat too much," the adult admonishes.

"Sorry…"

"Yeah, really! Just as long as we get an adult to take us here before sunset's over."

  


Behind her eyelids, hundreds of stars fall across the inky sky and reflect on the surface of the gentle ocean. Sand sparkles in the sea breeze and sea glass twinkles off the shore, all nothing more than stars, stars, stars. She tilts her face towards the sky and watches the ribbons of starlight shoot and twist, hearing waves crash against the shore and distant laughter that drowns everything else out.

Until she hears it.

_"I'm lost."_

Something is coming.

  


Taiyou sits up in bed again, her head naturally tilted towards the window that faces the ocean. She's been having these dreams lately, about something coming on the horizon. At first, she thought they were only an islander's dreams, but her aunties and grannies told her she had a gift for knowing things about the islands. It doesn't make a lot of sense to her; she can't know _everything_ about the islands, they're so big! There are so many people and buildings and plants and trees and animals here; she can't possibly know them all.

Yet she somehow does. Names and faces are easy to her. Animals are gentle and playful friends. She knows everyone and everyone knows her. They're all her family.

She thinks… someone new is coming to join her family. If they are, she's more than ready to meet them.

She goes back to sleep.

  


  


The festival isn't _for_ the meteor shower, but it was a happy coincidence that the dates ended up aligning. Life bustles through the central part of the mainland's capitol where stalls of all kinds line paved and unpaved roads; games, food, souvenirs, and everything else imaginable. Plazas laid with colorful stone of winding patterns and mosaics representing the islands' history had been cleared out for performances and showcases that would take place after nightfall.

As daughter of the chieftain, Taiyou is obligated to perform and help out for a little while. She'd been practicing her dances all week, but she isn't old enough to have a big performance all by herself, leaving her to dance in a group with her cousins and aunts. It's fun and all, but this festival is the first that she has actual friends! It's not that she had been shy or awkward before, but other kids always thought she was too aggressive and weird to be around, and not to mention that being the daughter of one of the most important people on the islands doesn't exactly invite lots of kids easily.

She mostly wants to rush everything so she can see the meteor shower. It's supposed to be _magical_ this year.

_"Help me."_

Taiyou looks up into the sky that has already begun its descent into sunset. Her small hand clenches at the fabric over her heart.

_I'm here,_ she thinks. _I'm here._

  


After what seems like _eons,_ their boat finally docks at the rickety pier of their play island.

"You're shirt's on backwards," Riku tells Taiyou the moment he steps foot onto the pier.

"What—No it's _not,"_ Taiyou protests, but then pulls at the collar of the simple cotton shirt she'd thrown on after finally being released from the prison that had been her traditional performance clothing and spots the tag. "Oh, _heck."_

Sora gasps. "That's a curse word! Ten years of bad luck!"

"No way!" Taiyou whines. "It is _not."_

"Is so! My mom said so!"

Sora and Taiyou continue their bickering all the way to the paopu tree island. Riku can only roll his eyes at them.

"Here it is," he says when they three climb the windswept tree trunk, "best seat in the house."

Both Taiyou and Sora whoop, and the three of them tilt their heads towards the sky. The last streaks of sunset fade into the horizon, gracing against the distant lantern lights of the mainland and giving way to the millions of glittering diamonds up above.

It's no sooner than when they start tracing nonsensical constellations in the stars that the first meteor shoots across the sky. The three of them clamor over each other, nearly toppling over more than once, marveling and shouting and laughing in awe. First, it's one, then a second and a third, and before they know it, starlight pours across the sky in waves, reflecting in the vast ocean cradling their tiny island. They leap off the tree and sprint across the bridge, following the stars across the boundless darkness and eventually land back on the shore, racing over the sand with hands thrown up like their small fingers could curl around even one shooting star.

"Wishes, we gotta make wishes!" Riku reminds them in a hurry. "Before it's over!"

Taiyou and Sora exclaim at the same time before clasping their hands together. The three of them scrunch their eyes close and wish upon the stardust blazing through the night.

_The strength to protect what matters,_ wishes Riku.

_The strength to keep my friends,_ wishes Sora.

_The strength to bring others together,_ wishes Taiyou.

_Let's be happy together,_ they decide.

  


Long after they tire out and are picked up by an adult, half-asleep on each other at the base of the bent paopu tree, light still streams across the sky. Taiyou is tucked into her bed, window panes pulled open for the sea breeze and crashing of the ocean against the cliff bearing part of her house to sweep her off to sleep like a lullaby.

Except her eyes are open, wide and gazing out the window. Anticipation lights her every nerve, body wired with excited nerves and apprehension tumbling in her tummy. What is she waiting for? By now, she's usually far off into dreamland, but the sky is just _so_ distracting. Her eyes won't stop tracing the curved patterns, won't stop searching for something beyond. She lays like that for a long time.

And then she sees it.

It's the brightest thing there—bright like the kind of lightning that petrifies sand and turns it to glass on the beach. Dizziness whirls through Taiyou, and her heart palpitates as the starlight speeds towards the island. She tumbles from her bed, panicked about the sudden idea that the meteor was going to crash right into her room. She scrambles under her bed and folds her head under her hands like the elders taught her in case of an emergency, and waits for the end to come.

Only, it doesn't.

Taiyou blinks her eyes open and lifts her head, only to yelp when she bumps it to the frame of her bed. Grumbling, she crawls out and inspects her room and indeed, everything is still in one piece. No end of the world.

"Um…"

Cheeks pinked, she climbs back onto her bed and looks out the window again, searching for the fireball that she was sure would destroy everything. Nothing. The stars are still in order, and the amount of meteors flying over the night steadily dwindle. She blinks again.

Something catches her eyes.

Down on the beach glows something faint. It pulses like a lighthouse revolves, unwavering and beckoning. Taiyou precariously bends halfway out the window, fingers clamped around the inside of the sill to hold her weight back as she searches for anyone else who might have witnessed the falling star too. There aren't any alarmed voices, not that she can hear much over the ocean waves, but she doesn't see any lanterns heading towards the glow.

If it's a star and she finds it first, she gets to keep it!

With that thought in mind, Taiyou quickly cobbles together a rope made of bed sheets knotted together, ties it to a bedpost, and tosses it out of the window. Before she climbs down, she pauses to make sure there's no one else awake in the house to catch her. Confirming that, she quickly squirrels down the makeshift rope and gently lands on the cliff, bare toes curling into the soft grass.

As quietly as she can, Taiyou sneaks around the outside of her house and carefully makes her way down the hill. Luckily, her house is situated close to the beach where the star landed, so the trip won't be a long one.

After a few missteps and stumbles, she finally makes it to the sand. The glow is fainter than before and bigger than she thought, and her mind begins to measure exactly _how_ she's going to lug something her own size back up to her room without being caught. It means groundation forever if she's caught! She absolutely _cannot_ be. So even though the waves lapping at the shore are loud enough to cover the scrunch of sand under her feet, she still treads lightly towards the dimming star.

_If it stops glowing, will it disappear?_

Worried at the thought, she creeps a little faster, only to pause at the odd silhouette.

_Stars have heads?_

Not only does this star have a head, but it has arms and legs too, and—

_Stars are shaped like humans!_

Taiyou rushes over and rubs at her eyes. It's… It's a _girl-_ shaped star _,_ about the same size as her! The glow is almost completely gone now, but Taiyou can make out red hair and light skin and a sundress. The waves crawling onto the shore seem to part around a radius of the star like magic, and Taiyou can hardly believe it.

Getting to her knees, she puts a hand to the star shoulder and rocks it. "Hey," she says, "Hey, are you alive?"

The skin is warm and doesn't… feel wet, so she can't have come from the ocean or drowned. Taiyou peeks up towards the sky where less stars fall across and squints. Her eyes track until they land on one star that seems to shift color and brightness—it dims. Her stomach lurches. She gasps, touch flinching away from the star.

Not a second later, the star groans, mumbling something unintelligible.

Confused, Taiyou leans in.

_"Grandma…"_

The word sounds mixed between crying and sighing, and Taiyou suddenly feels very sad. She hoists the star's upper body into her arms as it begins to tremble.

"I'm here," she says, squeezing like her aunts do when she's sad, "it's okay, I'm here." She looks towards her house. "Papa!"


	4. Strange Girl in a Strange World

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Taiyou wakes up in another world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _This chapter takes place during Kingdom Hearts._

_"Seems like everyone is falling out of the sky lately, huh?"_

_"Tends to happen when another world falls."_

_"D'you suppose they came from the same world?"_

_"Likely."_

A thick fog rolls across her mind and body, weighing every one of her limbs and organs down. Blurred images of breaking earth and lightning strikes flash behind her eyelids, and goosebumps ripple violently across her skin. Her chest feels unbelievably hot, like a fever cracked her ribs open and curled around her heart and lungs.

_"Looks like she's waking up."_

That voice… It doesn't sound like anyone she knows; not like papa, or Sora, or Kairi or Riku. Not like a relative or anyone else in town she knows. Did she end up that far outside the town? How did she get so far from home…?

"You alive, kiddo?"

She starts upwards, eyes flying open, and it suddenly feels like she got socked in the chest and left with no oxygen to breathe. Her hands scramble at her chest, fingers clawing, and _why can't she breathe oh no please someone—_ A feverish tightness burgeons between her lungs, like something has forced itself to fit alongside her hammering heart and demands she give up breathing for the space.

"She's panicking," says a voice in the background, but it's faraway and muffled. "Aerith."

Cool hands touch her skin and she flinches, scrambling, alarms roaring in her brain. Before she can put space between her and the touch, her body begins to feel heavy, like someone spread a weighted blanket over her. Exhaustion grows, sweeping from her head to her toes.

Her chest is still too tight and still burns, but the panic seeps away into the sound of waves crashing against the shore, and she sinks below the surface.

  


And then she wakes up again.

Wide-eyed, Taiyou sweeps the room. It's big and red and—

_Bedroom. Not my bedroom. Not any bedroom I've ever seen before—What the heck what the heck what the HECK—_

"Okay, breathe, breathe," says a young woman as she rises from the table in the room. "This is a lot to take in, take it slow."

Taiyou's fingers shove into her black hair and she presses into her scalp, trying to _remember._ Her brain grabs at straws of fleeting words and brief, jagged images from before her blackout. She remembers… She remembers…

Nightmares. Waking up in the middle of the night. Feeling wrong, wrong, _wrong, scared._ And then she stole a boat and went to the play island, and—

"Kairi? Sora? Riku?" She gasps. "Have you—My _friends,_ have you seen them? Are they here?"

She scurries off the bed and looks from face to face; a girl with short black hair and violet eyes; a man with long brown hair and dark blue eyes; a young woman with curly brown hair and green eyes. No red and indigo. No brown and sky blue. No silver and aquamarine. Just black and azure.

The young woman makes her way over and with gentle hands, clasps Taiyou's own shaky ones.

"Breathe, it's okay," she soothes. Taiyou blinks several times and her vision realigns while the panic boiling in her blood simmers down to a humming anxiety instead. The woman looks over her shoulder at the other girl in the room. "Yuffie, a glass of water, please?"

"Sure thing!" the girl pipes and bounces right up and out of the room.

"Let's sit down," the woman suggests, and leads Taiyou to the red table that she'd been seated at before. "Do you have a name?"

A door opens and Taiyou tenses before realizing that it's that girl, Yuffie, back with a glass of water. She sets it on the table before Taiyou, who hesitantly takes it and sips from the rim. Her fingers tighten around the glass and she swallows, steadily feeling more grounded than before.

"I'm… Taiyou," she answers slowly, and then looks around, silently begging to find a familiar feature about the room or anyone in it. Nothing. "...Where am I?"

"Traverse Town."

Taiyou looks past the woman to the surly man leaning against a red post with crossed arms. A scar fades diagonally across the bridge of his nose.

"I'm guessing this isn't your home world."

"Home… world?" Taiyou asks. "No. Never heard of it." Her forehead falls into one palm, and she narrows her eyes at the table's ornate surface.

Traverse Town… She isn't on Destiny Islands anymore. How did she get here? _When_ did she get here? The trip must've knocked her out for who knows how long. Definitely long enough for her to land in a _completely other world,_ but also long enough to lose track of her friends, and long enough to be found by strangers and cared for until she woke up.

_Riku, Kairi, Sora… Where are you?_

She sits up to find the three strangers watching her with sympathy. Her throat clears awkwardly.

"So, uh… Your names?"

The woman puts a hand to her collar. "I'm Aerith."

"I'm the great ninja, Yuffie!" The black-haired girl chirps, and then jams a thumb in the man's direction. "Mr. Grump over there is Leon. Don't worry, his face is just like that all the time."

Taiyou raises an eyebrow but shakes off the useless anecdote. "So, you guys, uh… like, saved me—or found me, or whatever...?" Her voice shrunk the longer she spoke.

"That's right," Leon answers. "The Heartless are active around here lately, especially since that kid showed up, and they led us right to you."

She blinks. "Heartless…?"

"Haven't heard of them?" Yuffie puts up a finger in explanation. "Exactly what it says on the tin, creepy little creatures of darkness that don't have hearts—and they like eating people too. Attracted to the darkness in people's hearts, y'know?"

Taiyou's hand curls into the front of her red shirt under her cream overalls absentmindedly. "They're bad," she said, more as a statement than a question.

Yuffie nods solemnly. The thought of those kinds of creatures getting to her friends before she could stirs alarm into her chest.

Leon pushes off from the wall, sensing her discomfort. "What were your friends' names again?"

Taiyou straightens out in the chair. "Oh, um, Kairi, Riku, and Sora," she answers, fingers curling. The three share a look that Taiyou quickly discern as knowing. She shoots up, hands planting on the table. "Do you know them? Have you seen them?!"

"Whoa-ho," Yuffie puts her hands up, "slow down there firecracker, it's okay." She then looks to Leon.

"There was a boy here, not too long ago," Leon explains in Yuffie's stead, "Said he was looking for his friends too. A Riku, a Kairi, and a Taiyou."

Lighting up, Taiyou slaps her chest. "That's me! I'm Taiyou! It was Sora!" She exclaims, spinning around and hugging herself. She abruptly stops. "Wait… _Just_ Sora? Kinda dumb-looking, wild brown hair and blue eyes?"

Aerith laughs softly. "Yes, it was surely Sora." Her lips then press together. "But… I'm afraid it was only him."

Soberness drains Taiyou's enthusiasm away. She stops bouncing around, and thoughts of Kairi and Riku trounce her mind, ricocheting off each other. Where could they be? If Sora landed here the same as her, why not them? What does it mean that the four of them were flung out into the wide universe? _Were_ Riku and Kairi tossed out like she and Sora? What does that mean for the islands?

"You… okay?" Yuffie asks, leaning over to get a look at her downcast face. She perks up immediately.

"Yeah!" She pumps a fist. "At least I know one of them's okay! Can I see him?"

Again, the room pauses and the triad exchanges looks. Taiyou restrains a groan, because _now_ what?

As the answer to her silent question, Leon replies, "He already left again."

"Left?" Her tone is incredulous. "Left… here? Or left…"

"Left the world."

She stops short.

_"How?"_

"Agents from the king of another world invited him, and he accepted."

Taiyou huffs a laugh of disbelief and her hands fall to her hips as she shifts her weight, shaking her head. "Unreal…" she mutters. "That Sora, always doing what he wants." She looks back up at them. "Okay, so, how do I get to him?"

Awkwardness steals the following silence immediately. Taiyou looks from face to face, and her stomach drops.

"No," she breathes, "don't tell me…"

"Intergalactic travel isn't possible without a proper vessel," Leon explains, "and there isn't a way for you to get one."

"But I—" Her eyes dart from Leon to Yuffie and Aerith. Sympathy is back in place on their faces. "No, I have to go after him, what if he gets hurt? I have to find him, and my other friends! I can't just _stay_ here!"

"Taiyou," Aerith interrupts gently, "it will be okay. Why don't you stay here, with us? Sora is bound to return at some point."

Taiyou's mouth impulsively opens to snap something likely mean, but a countdown blares through her mind, and she exhales forcefully through her nostrils. She puts up her hands after reaching zero.

"Look," she says, impressed at how unaffected she sounds, "you guys seem real nice and all, really! But I… I can't wait around, wondering where my friends are, hoping they're okay when they could be hurt. I gotta get to them."

"Totally get it," Yuffie replies disarmingly, "but seriously, there's no way off this world without a ship, and building one could take forever! You don't even have the right materials—"

Leon puts a hand up to stop the rambling, and then looks to Aerith, whose expression is melancholic as she nods in understanding.

"Taiyou," she says gently, "why don't you stay a while and give it some thought? This all must be so harrowing for you, so we understand your feelings."

"Nothing good gets done from jumping in headfirst," Leon adds, and Yuffie snorts. He glares at her.

"Like _you're_ one to talk," she jokes.

Ignoring the banter, Taiyou presses her lips together and curls her hands into fists. Restlessness rattles through her, like someone smacked a wasp nest inside her chest, and the wasps were all made of fire dense enough to be stars. They seem like nice people, really and truly, but she doesn't have _time_ to sit around and wait. She's _finally_ made it off the islands, just like she always wanted, but… If her friends aren't by her side, then what's the point?

Her shoulders fall.

 

Aerith and the others agree to pay for her rooming for the night, and then tomorrow they would decide where to house her for a more… prolonged stay. It's a kind gesture that Taiyou fully intends to pay back, but she can't stay. She's _got_ to find a way off of this world— _World, a whole other world, out there in the sky, an actual other world—_ and track down Sora, and then Kairi and Riku.

Who the heck did Sora leave with anyway? Going off with strangers like that? What did they offer him? It's _just_ like him to do something like that. She wishes she'd grilled Leon more, seeing as he seemed to know a whole lot about why Sora left. Is he looking for them too?

She sits at the edge of the bed and cards her fingers through her hair. Where in the whole wide universe could Sora be? Finding him won't be easy.

 

Later in the night that shows no signs of ending, Taiyou sneaks onto the balcony and makes her escape.


	5. Not So Alone, After All

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is only her, the memories she doesn't have, and this wretched stretch of ocean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _This chapter takes place after Kingdom Hearts._

The beach is a tired sight; a stretch of ocean so endless and murky that it devours the light of the single pale orb suspended in the dark abyss above it, framed by arcing stones piercing the water's surface like dragons caught in time. The sand, soggy and just this side of too cold, doesn't feel any better against her face than it had the first time. Chilly waves lap at the barren shore, but it sounds like nails tumbling around in a plastic container rather than the echo inside a conch shell. Grating, and all too wrong.

She doesn't know how she knows that it doesn't sound right, but she does.

_Doesn't feel good._

Rolling onto her back, she scrubs sooty sand off her face and flops her arms on either side of her.

Here she is again. Every path leads back to this beach, no matter what path she takes or which turns she makes; this place is the epicenter of gravity that always draws her back, always has her emerging from the same crowd of misshapen boulders scarred with geodes like petrified bioluminescent slugs. It's a disheartening truth she turned into a game: How long does it take to get from point Question Mark to point Endless Beach? The only problem with this game is, time doesn't like being kept track of here.

The sound of the waves punctures her brooding, and her jaw grits, her eyes squeeze closed. Frustrating shoots through her limbs, prompting her to shove up off the ground. She glares at the breadth of ocean, willing the crooked rocks to shatter and tear down the sky with them. Nothing happens.

Sharply, she wheels around and struts right back into the horde of glittering rocks, counting her steps. As usual, she loses count. As usual, she ends right back up where she started. A groan bursts from her mouth and her hands fly to her face, fingers digging.

_It hurts!_ Her mind wails, and terror whirls alive in her chest, both stormy and a black hole, and she remembers this feeling. If there's nothing else she remembers—and she doesn't, _and she doesn't—_ she remembers this. This horrible dread and all-consuming _nothingness_ that has been stalking her for as long as she's been here. But there isn't nothing. There _isn't nothing!_

There's despair.

Her fingers thread viciously into her hair and her head droops.

_Why am I here? Where am I? Why am I here? Where am I? WhyamiherewhereamiwhyamiherewhereamiWHYAMIHERE—_

_Who am I?_

The sob rips out of her throat before she can stop it, and then the rest follows. Harsh, throat-rending, oxygen-stealing, snotty, choking bawling. No one is around to hear it. The nails rattling onto the shore don't cover it up. The air, stagnant with the absence of time, doesn't shatter with it. There is only her, and her sobbing.

_I want to go home!_

She has no home. She doesn't even know where home _is._ For all she knows, this wretched place _is_ her home. Why is that worse than anything else she could possibly think of?

Eventually, her crying dwindles down to little more than hiccuping and sniffling. Once again, she's stretched flat on the grainy, clammy beach like she'd never moved in the first place. She'll be stuck here forever.

_That's cool, I guess._

Except it isn't. It isn't, and she's inconsolable. The despair unfurls, icy tendrils snaking from the pounding pit of her chest. It seeps into her veins and steeps into her blood, slogging itself from her black hole of a heart to the freezing tips of her fingers.

_It's cool._

If this is where she lives, she might as well become a creature suited to it. Her swollen eyes close, and the darkness begins its meal.

  


  


  


_"What's that over there?"_

Her eyes snap open. The inkiness that had been blotting up her flesh from her fingertips recedes immediately. She sits up, and the voice bounces off the walls of her alert mind as she frantically searches for its source. Her ears begin to strain, and she clicks her tongue at the overbearing chattering of the incoming waves.

She pushes back off the ground with renewed vigor and begins to search for the voice. The path of boulders opens up and she follows it, the waves slowly fading in place of a low droning—almost a shimmering, like a tired fairy. Her eyes dart around as her pace picks up, mindless of where her steps land to the point where she begins stumbling, bumping into things in the path, and twisting her head so much that it hurts her neck.

_"What's that over there?"_

It's close. Her heart, jacked on adrenaline, thuds in her chest, in her head, in her hands and feet; it's a miracle that she can hear over any of that at all. That's not the most important thing, though—the most important thing is… _she can't hear the ocean anymore._

The droning is louder, less dull and more glittery. She scans the land before her—still clearly close to the ocean, but are those wisps of a kind of grass she can see? It's muted in color like everything else around here—searching for anything that _isn't_ glowing like poisonous fungus or stygian like everything that _isn't_ bioluminescent.

For a fleeting moment, her tired mind and beat up legs entertain the thought of giving up and believing the voice was nothing but a product of desperation—and then she hears it again.

_"What's that over there?"_

She darts. Leaping and bounding, she tears over the terrain and dives into every crevice and ridge for the source. The chase goes on for hours. Then, after an eon, she finds it.

It's… glowing. Not like the eerie geodes and unnatural plants that want to come alive everywhere else, but glowing soft like a pale cloud. Orbs of light in all sizes orbit in nonsensical revolutions, crossing and twisting over each other, and for a longer eon, all she can do is marvel at the sight. There's never been anything like this around here, not that she's ever seen. The sight alone makes it hard to swallow, burns at her eyes in a way that has nothing to do with brightness.

_"What's that over there?"_

She blinks at it. Why does it keep repeating that? Cautiously, her hand reaches towards it, this small, fuzzy ball of light, and it goes right through—so does she. She stumbles right through it, and the scene shifts around her.

Stone road under her feet instead of dark sand and feeble grass, houses around her instead of boulders glowing with sharp geodes, a glittering night sky above her instead of an abyss—

_Wh-What—_

She jumps back when someone appears right in front of her; a middle-aged woman with brown hair tied back in a low bun, and she's peering past her, staring off somewhere into the distance. Next to her is a child that clings to her long skirt, almost hiding. In the open doorway of the house they're in front of is a man leaning out, looking to where the woman is pointing. Names jump to the tip of her tongue, but she can't catch them.

_"What's that over there?"_

She turns around to see what they're seeing. On the distant horizon is something dark and growing darker and larger.

_"A storm?"_

Hearing the new words, she blinks and looks back at the three.

_"Not like any storm I've ever seen before."_ The woman, turning surly, puts her hands to her hips and looks pensive. _"It's colder too."_

The man looks considerably less concerned. _"We'll have to board up the house extra tight tonight."_

The woman sighs. _"Yes… Let's get inside now, come along."_ She ushers the child back into the house. The door closes.

She looks back to where the three had been staring, and her mind staggers and slips. What _is_ that? Heaviness settles in her chest, but her blood comes alive with anxiety. Why does it feel like she's seen that before? Trying to remember is sort of like… climbing a staircase and where another step is expected, there's nothing but an empty space to trip into.

Static pops and the images fade away, trading road and house and sky for sand and boulder and abyss. Startled, she jerks her head around to make sure she's still standing. She looks at her hands and finds that they're still solid, unlike the images she'd just seen, which were closer to glitching projections than anything else. What… _was_ that?

The cloud is dimmer now, the orbs less kinetic. Panicked at the thought of it disappearing, she throws her hands out for it and they close around it, and she gasps at how… _warm_ it feels. It's the warmest thing she might have ever felt before. She steps closer to it, pulling it to her chest, reveling on how it spreads over her skin and suffuses down to her weary bones. Then, it's gone. There is no more light and only lingering warmth.

She looks at her hands, blinking. What just happened? Who were those people? Where had they been? The aggravation itching under her skin at grasping at frail straws only to break them is unlike anything she's felt before. She can't shake the feeling that she _should_ know what this is all about, but it's the door at the end of a hallway that won't stop stretching.

The immediate warmth is gone now, but in her chest, traces of it still ease into her rigid muscles. She closes her eyes and recalls the projections, only to find that she can picture them once again with perfect clarity. The faces aren't glitching, the landscape isn't twitching; there are only clear images of the people, the buildings, the roads, and the sky.

And the ominous feeling she'd gotten when seeing that storm on the horizon.

Dazed, she begins to walk. What a weird experience…

For the novelty of it, she replays the scene as she walks, amazed at the lucidity and visibility of it all. She replays it so many times that she hardly realizes she's been walking for hours.

And then she hears another voice.

_"Oh, Taiyou, what a goofball you are."_

Stunned, she looks up.

Her face splits with a grin extraordinarily, eyes lighting up, and without wasting another second, she darts off in search of the new voice.


	6. Pet Training

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Axel brings a new face to Castle Oblivion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _This chapter takes place during Chain of Memories._

"What are we, a halfway home for strays?"

"Always so _inhospitable,_ Larxene," chides Axel, arcing one hand. Behind him stands a much shorter figure, cloaked in the Organization's signature black with their hood still shadowing their face. "Why can't you show our guest some courtesy?"

Larxene, sizing up the newcomer with her electric gaze, snorts. "Oh, because _you're_ the poster boy for manners."

Before Axel's response can turn their back-and-forth into in all-out war, the doors open again. The two of them turn to see Marluxia waltz in, his usual floral scent flooding the room. He zeroes in on the new body immediately.

"What's this?" he asks, not sounding surprised in the least bit. "Has Number One graciously bestowed us with another tool at our disposal?"

Larxene steps forth to circle the figure, face scrutinizing, hands on her hips. "I doubt it."

Marluxia looks to Axel. "Have there been yet more numbers added to our ranks in our absence?" He chuckles derisively. "At this point, using _thirteen_ for our denomination is ironic."

Axel rolls his eyes and waves his hand. "No, we haven't gotten a new member since our littlest Number Fourteen," he says. "No, _this_ little one is outside our ranks completely." He cuts in front of Larxene, whose circling had become more predatory and an assertion of dominance than anything else. She glares at his back. He puts his hand to the figure's shoulder.

"Marluxia, Larxene, allow me to introduce Xingis. _Shin-kee,_ got it memorized?" He pulls down the hood without asking.

"Oh, wow," Larxene marvels, like she's looking at a particularly interesting insect, "get a load of that hair." She reaches out to grab a lock of the fiery red-orange that faded into gold at the tips. A pair of dark magenta eyes narrow at her, and she laughs. "Ooh, feisty! Where'd Xemnas pick this brat up?"

"Who knows." Axel shrugs. "But she's here for, oh, what did he call it again? _Training."_ He air-quotes around the word.

Marluxia, quiet all this time for examining Xingis, snorts himself. "If she has no role in our plans for the Keyblade master, then she poses no use to me." He turns away from the three and begins his exit. "Axel, seeing as it was you who brought her here, and Larxene, seeing as you're so interested, both of you keep her out of the way."

Larxene blanches at the thought of babysitting. _"Whaaat?_ Bullshit, I'm _not_ taking care of another brat."

Marluxia only hums, half-amused as he leaves.

"You don't even take care of anyone else," Axel points out. She wheels around on him.

"Just _watching_ after that little witch is enough, you think I want to look after Xemnas' _pet,_ too?" She sneers. "Go stick her in a corner or something, I'm sure she can learn plenty from there."

With that, Larxene takes her leave too. Axel snorts to himself and then turns to Xingis, who stares blankly in the direction of the door. He sighs, putting his hands to his hips.

"Always me and the icky jobs, huh…?" She looks at him without expression. He huffs through his nose, vaguely amused. "Alright, let's get you up to speed on what's going on here." He brings her over to the giant crystal sphere mounted on a pearly pedestal and pulls up projections of the castle's activities. "Well, you might not be in on their plan but," he chuckles, "you don't need to be. Boy, do I have ideas for your  _training."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> is shinki a stretch pronunciation of xingis? yes. do i care? absolutely fucking not how dare you ask


	7. Half-Marble, Half-Bronze, All Wrong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Green skin and a cunning face swear that this world holds one of her friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _This chapter takes place during Kingdom Hearts._

Hollow Bastion is so unlike Traverse Town that the difference smacks Taiyou's face to the side and hurts her neck.

Where Traverse Town is a mishmash of people stumbling into a perpetual nighttime from all corners of the universe, lost and confused but with no other choice than to make a new home out of it, Hollow Bastion is waterfalls flowing the wrong way and a half-marble, half-bronze abomination of a castle menacing above the rest, so cold and inhospitable that anyone who tripped here couldn't make a home out of it if they tried. Taiyou can feel it—the darkness radiating from the core of this world. The atmosphere is lousy with it, careening deep in her stomach and nauseating her. Traverse Town had been nothing like this.

_..._ _Destiny Islands_ is— _was—_ nothing like this.

Worse still is the guard escorting her to wherever it is that shady green lady told them to. Hunger emanates off of these gangling little creatures that she could feel even if they weren't just feet away, and she doesn't like how close they plod to her. Their fathomless yellow eyes under that silver helmet do nothing but drag her back to the Secret Place, so she's been trying to avoid looking at them. All she can think about when she sees them are those rotten little _bugs_ pouring out of her door in droves, only to—

Taiyou swallows thickly, stomach churning. Every second of this has been torture, but she refuses to be scared off. The green lady (whose _natural_ skin tone is _green?)_ had sworn that Riku was here, and it's the best lead she's gotten after finding out that Sora ditched Traverse Town. She has to start somewhere.

What the heck could those strangers Sora left with have said to trick him into going with them? He's one of her best friends, but he's never been all that bright. She cringes at the thought.

_What am I saying. Look what I ended up doing. I'm just as bad._

Her chief taught her better than to go off with _strangers,_ but none of those teachings encompassed what to do when your home got swallowed up by some sinister darkness.

One of the creatures turns its uncanny eyes on her, and her stomach rolls. She wonders if they sense despair.

...Her chest hurts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [i've also upd8ed chapter 4!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17762576/chapters/42141614) just an addition, that's all :^)


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